Pinhole

Photographs Made with Lensless Film Cameras

A pinhole camera is the simplest photographic instrument imaginable: a light-tight box with a pinprick-size hole in the front and some light-sensitive material in the back. The hole casts a soft image unlike anything produced by a lens, an image in which all objects are defined (or undefined) to the same degree, irrespective of their distance from the camera. Making a pinhole camera and playing with it is a pleasant reprieve from the exigencies of sharpness and technological sophistication that reign otherwise in the large format and digital worlds. The images in this little collection were shot on 120 and 4"x5" film and work well as large prints. The armored critters are suicidal horseshoe crabs.